George W. Lee

George Washington Lee (25 December 1903-7 May 1955) was an African-American minister and an early leader of the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi. Lee was murdered by segregationists while encouraging blacks in Midnight, Mississippi to get out and vote.

Biography
George Washington Lee was born in Edwards, Mississippi on 25 December 1903, and he was raised by his illiterate mother and an abusive stepfather in poverty. Nevertheless, Lee managed to graduate from high school, and he worked on the banana docks of New Orleans and also trained as a typesetter. During the Great Depression, he became a Baptist preacher in Belzoni, Mississippi, and he also owned a grocery store and a print shop in the town. Lee would become an activist for the Civil Rights movement during the 1950s, and he encouraged fellow African-Americans to vote, working tirelessly to improve his people's voting rights as an NAACP chapter leader. In 1955, he managed to ensure that nearly all 90 African-Americans in Humphreys County were registered to vote, and he organized boycotts of gas stations that did not have black restrooms. In April 1955, he gave an electrifying speech, in which he famously said, "Pray not for your mom and pop; they've gone to heaven. Pray you can make it through this hell." Less than a month later, while Lee was driving through Midnight, Mississippi, Lee was shot three times by an assassin with a shotgun in a drive-by shooting. Lee's jaw was shattered, and he died of his wounds before he reached the hospital.